Two years ago Antonie, Karin, and I set up an artists’ association* with the idea of creating opportunities for artistic research outside of Stockholm’s art institutions. Last Friday we had our AGM. It did not take long as the we have all been too busy with our own practices, careers, lives, to do anything under the group name. However we all want to keep the possibility of doing something so the meeting enabled us to fulfil the minimum requirements and keep the association “active”. Sitting around a table in the fifth-floor cafe of the Culture House the three of us quickly began to get excited about what we could do and how our own practices/research suggested a number of projects or events that the association could run. We are meeting up again (here in Enköping) next week to take this discussion further. Speaking personally (which of course the only way to speak!) it feels like the right time for me to be more engaged again – several ideas of mine could be strengthened and given focus by approaching them through the context of the group despite my recently re-awakened caution around the concept of artistic research.
One thing that I want to pursue is the possibility of organising a panel discussion looking at what artists have for expectations of artistic research. I am going to propose the idea to Supermarket for their Talks programme at next year’s fair. Not only would this be a great way of taking the group to a wider audience but it would also give me the opportunity to investigate my own feelings in an appropriate context.
On Tuesday I am going to setting up Brief Encounter for a group show here. This afternoon I unpacked it from the box where it has been since 2008, and I am pleased to say that everything (the transformer and the two locomotives) still works. Klas (Enköping Arts Development) wants the piece to be the first thing that people see when they enter the library (the main venue for the weekend’s activities). I am both flattered and a bit anxious! Perhaps anxious is not quite the right expression – I am intrigued as to what people’s reactions will be as the ‘story’ aspect of the piece is not immediately obvious. I guess this might be why Klas has selected it, I certainly think that he is raising the stakes for the town council’s commitment to contemporary practice and I am absolutely delighted to help with that!
